Trot line fishing is an art of long standing, and many devices have been developed to facilitate its accomplishment. One such device is the dispenser, usually some form of container, the container being formed with a wall or the like having an edge portion provided with a plurality of spaced apart, upwardly-opening slots for receiving the short or hook lines. One example of the container type dispenser is the subject of the Reitzammer U.S. Pat. No. 3,005,281. The dispenser there is of two-piece construction, having a square base with upstanding, slotted side walls and a square cover having matching slots. That container must be inverted in use, the top (which becomes the bottom when inverted) having pivot means for allowing the box-contained line to be played out as the boat moves away from some convenient anchor point, a procedure known in the art.
The deficiencies in a device such as Reitzammer's can be best recognized by brief reference to the basic purpose of a trot line dispenser, which is to enable setting of the line as quickly as possible, which in turn flows from the ability to bait hooks in a convenient place, set them out and pick them up later. In Reitzammer, the swivel for making the container rotatable is inside the container and thus apt to snag the line carried within the container. Next, the design uses a cover while dispensing and thus requires an extra step in use and operation. The slotted walls provide further snagging problems, both in setting out and picking up the line.
According to the present invention, these and other problems are eliminated by a design that enables fast and smooth operation, with no line snagging or other hang-ups. The pivot for rotation of the dispenser is exterior of the container and cannot interfere with the interior-carried line. The container has a flat circular bottom with an upwardly and outwardly sloping annular wall terminating in an upper circular rim of special design in which angularly spaced apart radial slots are provided. Each slot has its maximum depth at the outer marginal edge of the rim and the bottom of each slot tapers upwardly and inwardly to substantially zero depth adjacent to the smooth annular junction of the upper surface of the rim with the interior surface of the sloping annular wall, preferably terminating short of that interior wall so as to eliminate any possibility of line snagging during dispensing.
A further feature of the inventive dispenser is the provision of means for stabilizing the container against tipping during transport. The interior of the dispenser is configured to receive the stabilizing means of a like second container when stacked atop the first container. The sloping wall further adds to the ability of the containers to be stacked, both for transport and storage.
Further features and advantages of the invention will become apparent as a preferred embodiment of the invention is disclosed herein.